TELLING STORIES, CHANGING THE CONVERSATION

The Ark week in review: a roundup of the week’s most important news

Political Prisoner Freed

Former Black Liberation Army member, Herman Bell, was granted parole after serving 45 years in prison for the deaths New York City police officers Joseph A. Piagentini and Waverly M. Jones. Both officers were fatally shot outside a housing project in Harlem in 1971.

Bell, 70 an inmate at the Shawangunk Correctional Facility, “could be freed as early as April 17,” according to the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision website. In a recent letter by Bell to the State Parole Board, they credited him with taking responsibility “for your actions” and expressing “regret and remorse for your crimes,” the New York Times reports. Bell reportedly told parole board panelists during their interview of him on March 3,“There was nothing political about the act, as much as I thought at the time. It was murder and horribly wrong.”

Last year, Bell was beaten by six correctional facility guards over claims that he assaulted officers. According to Mundo Obrero Workers World, Bell never received any disciplinary violations before then. His release was granted upon his eight parole board hearing.

The Struggle is Looking Worse

According to a report by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C. based think tank, “there has been no progress in how African Americans fare in comparison to whites when it comes to homeownership, unemployment and incarceration.” The Washington Post, in highlighting various points of the EPI’s report, states that 50 years after the release of the Kerner Commission Report:

7.5 percent of African Americans were unemployed in 2017, compared with 6.7 percent in 1968 — still roughly twice the white unemployment rate.

The rate of homeownership, one of the most important ways for working- and middle-class families to build wealth, has remained virtually unchanged for African Americans in the past 50 years. Black homeownership remains just over 40 percent, trailing 30 points behind the rate for whites, who have seen modest gains during that time.

The share of incarcerated African Americans has nearly tripled between 1968 and 2016 — one of the largest and most depressing developments in the past 50 years, especially for black men, researchers said. African Americans are 6.4 times as likely than whites to be jailed or imprisoned, compared with 5.4 times as likely in 1968.

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MEET THE ARKITECTS

Newark, New Jersey

AFRICAN DIASPORA
A professor at New York University who teaches writing, she specializes in research focusing on the African diaspora and media. A published author, journalist, poet and budding documentarian, she has worked in media for over 20 years. Her endeavors encompass three areas: academia, artistry and activism.

KAIA NIAMBI SHIVERS

Lexington, Kentucky

FATHERHOOD
A native of Harlem, he earned his BA in English from Hunter College, CUNY, and his PhD in English from Rutgers University, with a focus on African American Literature. He now lives in Lexington, Kentucky and teaches in the Whitney Young Center of Global Leadership at Kentucky State University. He co-parents a bright young son who is energetic and savvy.

DONAVAN RAMON

Los Angeles, California

TV & FILM
An editor on some of televisions popular reality shows, her love is in editing film and telling stories through TV and movies. Working for almost a decade at Sundance Film Festival, she shifts her lens to virtual reality and documentary productions.

TASHA CURTIS

Maplewood, New Jersey

FOODWAYS
Executive chef and partner of Cornbread Soul, a soulfood lux-casual restaurant located in Maplewood, she is part Edna Lewis and Zora Neale Hurston. In 2007, she made the radical shift as a doctoral student researching health in Tanzania to a student in culinary arts. After graduating from Cordon Bleu, she carved out a career that fuses her interests in culture, wellness and food with a specialty in women.

CASSANDRA LOFTLIN

Los Angeles, California

TRAVEL & LIFESTYLE
By day he drives trucks, by night he is an LA socialite who traipses underground hangouts, eateris and small businesses that make up the complicated West Coast Basin. Hands down, he is an LA aficionado. A Tuskegee University and Southern University almost alumni, he is owner of Stone's Juke Joint, a show featuring local musicians and singers, he is committed to keeping culture and arts alive in South Los Angeles, all the while traveling to unknown parts.

MATITO KIABAYOMI

Los Angeles, California

HEALTH & PARENTHOOD
Juggling career and family, the budding health enthusiast works in a number of community initiatives in her beloved South Los Angeles.

AMARA BROWN

Brooklyn, New York

MARKETS & EDUCATION
With an M.S. in education, she is a veteran special education teacher and researcher who is a full time mother of two.